Yale Endowment Rises to All-Time High

At no point in the 313-year history of the University has the endowment ever been larger.

According to a Wednesday morning Yale Investments Office press release, the endowment rose to $23.9 billion in fiscal 2014, the year beginning July 1, 2013 and ending on June 30, 2014. The return on the University’s assets was 20.2 percent over the same period, beating the returns of every other Ivy League institution that has released its figures.

In fiscal 2013, the endowment was $20.8 billion.

In the period before the Great Recession, the endowment soared, reaching a high water mark of $22.9 billion in fiscal 2008. However, the next year, the University’s assets lost nearly a quarter of their value.

But, the endowment has strongly rebounded, and this year, the University benefited from investment gains of approximately $4.0 billion.

Three weeks ago, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said its assets returned 19.2 percent over the past year. Dartmouth earned the same return in fiscal 2014. The University of Pennsylvania’s endowment grew by 17.5 percent over the same period.

On Tuesday, Harvard reported that its assets returned 15.4 percent in fiscal 2014.

Yale’s longer term returns remain in the top tier of institutional investors, according to the press release. Yale’s endowment returned 11.0 percent per year over the 10 years ending June 30, 2014. This surpassed broad market results for domestic stocks, which returned 8.4 percent annually, and for domestic bonds, which returned 4.9 percent annually.

The press release also noted that relative to the estimated 7.6 percent average return of college and university endowments, over the past decade, Yale’s investment performance produced $8.4 billion in added value.

Over the last 10 years, the endowment grew from $12.7 billion to $23.9 billion, net of spending.